Notes: Tools of Titans

I’ve never been a huge fan of Tim Ferriss for no real reason whatsoever. I read The Four Hour Workweek when it first came out and while I found it to be inspiring, it seemed largely unrealistic for a normal person to be able to accomplish everything in the book. Though, I did take away some good ideas which I think was the point. My cousin got a copy of Ferriss’ latest book Tools of Titans, and I started thumbing through it at work. After about 10 minutes, I realized that I couldn’t put it down. It’s incredible!

There’s SO MUCH good information it quickly became clear that I had to force myself to take notes and look things up after finishing the book otherwise I’d never make it through. One of my friends suggested that I post my notes so here they are. I’ve added comments on the things I looked up. Enjoy! Let me know if there were things that stood out to you that I missed. My comments are in ITALICS.

-Documentary – The Gatekeepers – I looked this up. It looks great but haven’t had time to watch it yet.

-Book – Reasons and Personas – Derek Parfit – This looks good. I’ve added it to my Amazon wishlist, I’ll get to it eventually. Coincidentally, I’ve decided to spend this year learning everything I possibly can about human consciousness [more on that later] and I started by finding as many college course syllabi that I could related to the topic. This book was required reading on more than a few.

–Sam Harris Guided Meditation – This is great. I’ve actually been meditating to both of the guided meditations on this page since I looked this up (not exclusively but it’s my go-to quick session). Also, I just watched the Minimalism documentary and Sam Harris makes an appearance there. I didn’t know who Sam Harris was before reading this book and now he seems to be popping up everywhere.

-“Write to get ideas, not to express them” – Kevin Kelly – I’ve kept this in mind as I’ve been trying to write more this year and it’s actually been really fruitful. I find myself having more and more ideas after every writing session.

-question to ask people “what are some of the choices you’ve made that made you who you are?” – I’ve been toying with starting my own podcast for fun this year. I love this question.

–in praise of idleness – Bertrand Russell – I love reading Bertand Russell; I haven’t had time for this one yet though.

–the joyous cosmology – Alan Watts – I have never done psychedelics before but the further I dive into exploring consciousness, the more I’m intrigued. I definitely want to check out this book. I do love Alan Watts.

-“2000-3000 people, not general fame” – “General fame is overrated. You want to be famous to 2,000-3,000 people that you handpick” – From Eric Weinstein. I like this.

-“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect.” -Mark Twain – I LOVE this quote. I’m going to use this in some of my classes

-“hallucinogenic elite” – See my note above on The Joyous Cosmology and a quote from the podcast with Eric Weinstein: “It wasn’t until I started meeting some of the most intellectually gifted people in the sciences and beyond and I realized that this was sort of the open secret of what I call the hallucinogenic elite, whether it’s billionaires or Nobel laureates or inventors and coders. A lot of these people were using these agents either for creativity or to gain access to the things that are so difficult to get access to through therapy and other conventional means.”

-“if you can’t see yourself working with someone for life, don’t work with them for a day.” – Naval Ravikant – I’ve tried to keep this in mind when making business and personal decisions.

“You get paid for being right, and being first,you can’t wait for consensus.” – Naval Ravikant – I’ve tried to keep this in mind when making business and personal decisions. (same as above)

-“if you could only work two hours a week on your business, what would you do?” – This is one of Tim’s “17 questions that changed my life” and it’s an interesting way to think about how you’re spending your time and how to be most efficient. I just listened to this episode of Tim’s podcast that discusses it in detail (the rest of the episode is great too)

-“what if we could only subtract to solve problems?” – I’ve been keeping this in mind a lot lately.

-AcroYoga – I had no idea what this was before reading this book. I looked it up and it seems fucking weird. But, I’m not judging.

-“You’re either great, or you don’t exist.” Keenan Ivory Wayans – Man, I love this quote.

-“What can you do that will be remembered in 200 to 400 years?” – Love this one too. As we think about leaving a legacy and what we’re doing now that can really have an impact, this is great.

-Shackleton Sniff Test. “Is this the most audacious adventure ever? Would Shackleton do it?” – I like this a lot

Podcast: the moment with John Hamburg – I listened to this episode and then listened to a few more Moment episodes. It’s a great podcast.

–Dvorak keyboard – I think it’s Matt Mullenweg who mentions this keyboard layout and states that it’s much faster than QWERTY. I thought about buying a cover to try it on my Macbook but I’m hesitant since I use so many various computers throughout my day (classrooms, etc…). Anyone have experience with this?

–P2 WordPress theme – This is pretty interesting. I listened to another episode of Tim’s podcast with Matt Mullenweg and he says they use this internally at WordPress to work on different things. I’m not sure how I’d use it.

Momentum chrome extension to focus – I looked this up and then realized that I’m already using it. Essentially, it gives you a great picture of natural landscapes every time you open a new tab in Chrome (there are other features but that’s really all I use it for). It’s pretty cool.

–Wunderlist to do list – I was using To-Doist before looking this up. I switched to Wunderlist and it’s much better for reasons that I cannot explain.

–Calm.com – mediation – This is a decent resource. I’ve done a few meditations from here.

-Film: Little Dieter Needs to Fly – Herzog – This is on Netflix or YouTube. I tried to watch it but just couldn’t do it. I have a love hate relationship with Herzog’s films. They’re either mind-blowing or boring as hell. This one fell into the later category for me.

Short film: Make it Count – Casey Neistat – This is Great! It’s only 4mins. Watch it.

-“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading, or do things worth writing.” Benjamin Franklin. – Like this.

-“if you want an average life, it doesn’t take much planning…but if you want to do something extraordinary, you have two options 1)Become the best at one specific thing. 2) Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.” – Scott Adams

–Creative Live – learning site. – This is a cool resource. I haven’t had time to take any of the courses though.

“The biggest mistake you can make is to accept the norms of your time.” – Neil Strauss – I love this too. Going to use it in my classes as well.

Radiolab- in the dust of this planet – As someone that is interested in how culture spreads, this is very cool. I recommended this to a few people after listening to it.

-“Sometimes you need to stop doing things you love in order to nurture the one thing that matters most.” – Scott Belsky

-“When 99% of people doubt you, you’re either gravely wrong, or about to make history.” – Scott Belsky – I love both of these quotes.

-movie: To Be and To Have – I started watching this and realized that I need to really commit time to going through it all. It looks fascinating.

-Movie: killings them softly – Gandalfini, liotta – I do want to watch this. I listened to “The Moment” with Ray Liotta after finishing Tools of Titans and he talks about this movie at length. I’d suggest listening to the podcast and then watching (but I haven’t watched it yet).